PHOTO: Oba Akiolu Appears In Court Over Land Dispute

Oba of Lagos, Rilwan Akiolu, has blamed some
officials of the Lagos State Government as well as
traditional rulers of the Ibeju-Lekki area of
responsibility for the crises besetting the
community, especially the deadly conflicts over
disputed land.
Oba Akiolu spoke earlier today when he appeared
at a coroner's inquest at the Lagos State High
Court in Ikeja. The inquest is mandated to
investigate the causes of crises in the Ibeju-Lekki
community culminating in several deaths. One of
the more recent deaths was of Tajudeen Disu,
chairman of the Lekki Free Zone that oversees
development in the disputed land area.
Giving testimony at the inquest, Oba Akiolu
criticized state government officials, saying their
greed had fueled the crises. He declared that
some state government officials were insincere
and blinded by their greed, leading to actions that
were against both good conscience and the
interests of the residents of the community.
In addition, Oba Akiolu stated that some
traditional rulers in the Ibeju-Lekki area were
only concerned with their selfish financial
interests. He accused them of cutting deals over
land rather than focusing on planning for the
larger community along and seeking the interests
of their people.
The Oba's testimony suggested that some staff of
the Lagos State Ministry of Lands and Survey
were engaged in rackets to issue certificates of
land ownership. He praised inhabitants of the
community for resisting the hijack of their
communal land by greedy officials who have sold
most of the land without helping to resettle the
displaced residents. Even so, Oba Akiolu criticized
the inhabitants for using the wrong methods in
their fight, noting that they lacked exposure and
were therefore easy to manipulate.
"The land belongs to the dead, the living and the
unborn," Oba Akiolu stated in his testimony to the
coroner, Justice Adesuyi Olateru-Olagbegi. He
added that the selling off the communal land had
indigenous members of the community into
strangers on their own land. He dared any of the
local rulers to oppose his position on the issue,
stating that they were too preoccupied with
cutting deals in order to obtain cash largesse
from business owners interested in acquiring
land in the area, but with no concern for peace
with the inhabitants